Outer Space Mystery (2 page)

“Sure,” said Mark. “I wish I could show you Saturn, too. But it rises much later. You’d have to get up very early in the morning, while it’s still dark out.”

“I always get up really early,” Benny bragged. The storm was rumbling down the mountain and he felt braver.

“But first you have to go to bed,” said a familiar voice.

“Grandfather,” said Violet. “Where were you?”

“Able Porter and I waited out the rain in the main building. But before we got there we were soaked,” replied James Alden. “I’m going to toast by the fire a bit. You children should go on up to bed. You’ve had a busy day.”

After saying good night, the Aldens went upstairs. Jessie and Violet unlocked their door and went into room six.

Henry got out the key to his and Benny’s room.

“It’s already open,” whispered Benny. He pushed on the door, which swung inward. “Maybe somebody’s in there!”

“Let me go in first,” Henry cautioned. He stepped carefully into the room, switching on the light.

First he checked under the beds and then in the tiny bathroom. But no one was hiding.

“All clear,” Henry told Benny.

“Who was in our room?” Benny asked.

“I don’t know,” Henry replied. “But I know the door was locked. Somebody came in while we were at the cookout. Is anything missing?”

“Hey!” cried Benny. “There were four apples in the basket. I ate one. But look!” He held up two apples. “Somebody took an apple.”

A sharp rap on the doorjam caused them both to jump.

Hazel Watson came into the room. “I heard your conversation from the hall. Is anything wrong?”

“Somebody broke into our room,” Henry told her. “We found the door unlocked.”

“Oh, dear,” said the housekeeper. “I hope nothing is missing.”

“An apple,” Benny reported.

“Are you
sure
the door was locked, Henry?” Hazel asked. “People have been arriving for the conference all evening. Maybe one of them accidently went into your room.”

Now Henry wasn’t so certain. “Maybe I was wrong,” he said. “Sorry to bother you.”

“No trouble. See you in the morning,” Hazel said, pulling the door shut behind her.

Henry went over to the window to close the blinds. Suddenly he slipped and nearly fell.

There was a puddle of water beneath the window.

“Water!” he exclaimed. “How did that get here?”

Then it came to him. Whoever had broken into their room might have been at the cookout. Drenched from the storm, the intruder had dripped on the floor.

Benny bent down. “What is this?” He held up a damp, pale blue piece of paper.

“It looks like a gum or candy wrapper,” Henry observed. “The person must have dropped it.”

“You know what this means?” Benny exclaimed. “We have a new mystery to solve!”

The next morning was sparkling and sunny. The rain had left the campus fresh and green.

In the dining room, the Aldens sat at a table by a big window. The room buzzed with the chatter of scientists. Grandfather was attending a special breakfast meeting.

Violet put down her menu. “Ugh! Who’d want mountain trout for
breakfast
?”

“Fresh-caught trout is supposed to be good,” Henry said. “But I’m with you, Violet. I can’t face fish this early.”

Rachel Cunningham came over to take their orders. She wore a cheerful pink sweater, but no smile.

Jessie wondered why the girl seemed so unhappy. It was a beautiful day. Who could be glum under such blue skies?

Jessie smiled at Rachel when she brought the Aldens’ orders, but Rachel didn’t respond.

While the Aldens spooned up oatmeal with maple syrup and raisins, they discussed the new mystery.

“You should have shown the puddle and that wrapper to Hazel,” Jessie said to Henry. “That’s proof somebody was in your room.”

“Hazel had already left,” Henry said. “Anyway, she thinks someone just went in there by accident.”

“If the person didn’t take anything, maybe it
was
an accident,” Violet mused.

Benny waved his spoon. “They took one of my apples!”

“I guess he — or she — was hungry,” said Henry.

“But he couldn’t have been hungry if he’d just come in from the cookout,” Jessie pointed out.

Henry buttered a corn muffin. “We don’t know for sure that the person was at the cookout. Maybe he just got caught in the storm.”

Just then Randy Merchant walked by, carrying a Styrofoam cup of juice. “Hey, guys!” he greeted. “When you finish, come by the observatory. I’ll show you the telescope.”

“Oh, boy!” Benny said, stuffing half a muffin in his mouth. “Let’s hurry!”

Violet laughed. “Benny! The telescope isn’t going anywhere.” But she was eager to visit the observatory, too.

“Good breakfast,” Jessie said when Rachel cleared their plates. “Thanks.”

“Don’t thank me,” she said shortly. “I’m not the cook.”

As the Aldens went outside, Jessie remarked, “I wonder why Rachel is so unfriendly.”

“Maybe she’s just having a bad day.” Henry indicated a sign beside a graveled path. “The observatory is this way.”

The trail wound upward, between jagged rocks and thick bushes. The children were out of breath when, a while later, they reached a windowless building capped by a white dome.

“We’re on the very top of the mountain,” said Henry as they headed toward the building. “You can see the campus down there.”

They opened the door to the building and walked down a hall lined with desks and bookcases. At the end of the hall another door stood open.

“Come in!” Randy’s voice echoed from within.

The children stepped into a huge round room. The ceiling curved overhead like the inside of an egg. In the center of the room was a large cylinder-shaped object.

Randy Merchant stood at the base of the instrument, holding a pair of pliers. “Welcome,” he said, grinning.

Henry looked up, marveling at the enormous structure. “We’re inside the dome, aren’t we?”

“There’s a big crack in it,” Benny said, pointing to a narrow slit in the roof. “You should get it fixed.”

Randy laughed. “The slit is supposed to be there. The roof slides open when the telescope is in use.” He patted the huge cylinder. “I told you it was a beauty.”

“Can we look through it?” asked Benny.

“I’m doing some maintenance on it right now,” Randy replied. “But I’ll tell you about it. This is a twenty-four-inch reflecting telescope.”

“How does it work?” asked Henry. He was interested in mechanical devices.

Randy adjusted a wheel on the side of the telescope. “There are two types of telescopes,” he explained. “Refracting and reflecting. Both types gather light and send it toward the eye of the viewer. Refracting telescopes use a lens. Reflecting telescopes use a mirror. Both types of lenses allow you to see objects very far away.”

“Speaking of far away, why is this building so far from the rest of the college?” Jessie wanted to know.

“Good question,” said Randy. “Observatories are always located in high places, like a mountaintop. The air is clearer up here and we are farther away from city lights. You want a really dark sky so you can see the stars.”

Henry touched the sleek white metal of the telescope. “Are you an astronomer like Mark Jacobs and Eugene Scott?”

“Oh, you’ve met those two already,” Randy said with a chuckle. “No, I’m not a student. I work for the college, keeping the telescope in working order. I’m also a writer,” he added proudly.

“I’m a writer, too,” Benny put in. “I can write my name. I can write Watch’s name, too.”

“Watch is our dog back home,” Jessie told Randy. “What have you written?”

Randy went over to a desk and pulled out a box.

“These are my journals,” he said. “I write down everything the astronomers do. Even what they eat for snacks. Mark likes peanut butter sandwiches. Eugene Scott eats anything. I hope to get an article published about young astronomers in a science magazine.”

Henry glanced at the clock over the desk. “This has been great, but we should let you get back to work.”

“Come back tonight,” Randy urged. “Mark will show you the stars like you’ve never seen them.”

The Aldens went back outside and down the mountain. It was too early for lunch. They decided to walk through the campus and down the main drive.

“Here’s that trail we saw on the way in,” said Henry.

“But Randy told us to stay away from it,” Violet said.

“But he wouldn’t say
why
,” said Benny.

“I’m sure he has a good reason —” Jessie began, but a thrashing noise in the woods cut her off.

The children caught a glimpse of a small animal running down the trail.

“What was that?” Violet exclaimed.

“Let’s follow it and find out!” Henry cried.

They hiked a while, swatting gnats and looking for the animal they’d seen. Then the trail became narrower and fainter until it disappeared altogether.

“I think we should go back,” Jessie said.

“I do, too,” agreed Henry. “But which way is back?”

Violet gazed down into the hollow. “Is that a chimney?” she said to the others. “It must belong to a cabin.”

Jessie stared at the stone chimney. “I don’t remember any cabin near the college. I think we’re lost!”

“W
e shouldn’t have gone down this trail,” Violet said. “No one knows where we are.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll find our way back,” Henry assured her.

“I’m hungry,” Benny said. Lost or not, he wasn’t about to miss lunch. Looking around, he spotted a faint path twisting through the trees. “I think this is it!”

“Benny, you’re right!” Jessie gave him a quick hug.

The children hurried through the dense underbrush. Soon the narrow track widened into the main driveway. Within minutes, they were back on the campus of Mountvale College.

Streams of people poured from the main building.

“Just in time for lunch,” Henry said. “The conference must be over for the morning.”

“And there’s Grandfather,” Violet exclaimed, running over to him. “Grandfather, are you eating with us?”

“I’m sorry, Violet. I’ve been asked to sit with today’s guest speakers,” James Alden replied. “You children go ahead. I’ll see you later this evening.”

The Aldens entered the dining room and quickly staked out a table. Rachel Cunningham brought over four menus.

Jessie tried to be friendly. “Hi, Rachel. How are you doing?”

“Fair,” replied the young woman. She popped her chewing gum impatiently. “What’ll it be?”

Jessie hadn’t even had time to read the menu. She noticed a group of students at the next table. They were snapping their fingers at Rachel.

“I think those people over there want you,” she said. “You can take their order first.”

Rachel barely glanced in their direction. “Rich kids,” she said with a sniff. “Just because their parents have a lot of money doesn’t mean they can treat me like a maid.”

“Hey, Rachel,” called one of the young men. “What’s good today?”

“I don’t cook the food,” she said over her shoulder. “I just serve it.” Then she took an order pad and pencil from her skirt pocket.

Benny noticed the big ring of keys attached to her belt. “You sure have a lot of keys,” he said admiringly. “Do you know what they all go to?”

“I should,” Rachel replied with a sigh. “I have to clean each of those rooms every day.”

“You have keys to all the dorm rooms?” Henry asked, suddenly interested.

“All the rooms in the Seneca Building,” she said. “Now, what do you want for lunch?”

Henry ordered a chicken salad sandwich with potato chips and milk. So did everyone else.

When Rachel left, Henry leaned forward. “She has keys to all the rooms,” he said. “Rachel could have been the one in our room last night. She was at the cookout. And she got caught in the storm.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” said Jessie. “But why would Rachel break into your room? Was she looking for something? Nothing was taken.”

“One of my apples,” Benny reminded her.

Violet smiled. “That’s not a very big crime, Benny. Maybe Rachel didn’t have anything to eat at the cookout and she was hungry.”

“But why break into our room to steal an apple?” Henry asked. “She works near the kitchen — she could have anything she wants.”

“Henry’s right,” Jessie agreed. “It doesn’t really make sense. Rachel’s kind of touchy, but I think she’s okay, deep down inside.”

“I don’t think it’s Rachel, either,” Violet said.

“Well, even if it doesn’t make sense, right now she’s our number one suspect,” said Henry.

Just then their lunches came. The children were so hungry that they didn’t speak until there were only potato chip crumbs on their plates.

The students were leaving. It was time for the afternoon session to begin.

As the Aldens were getting up, they saw Eugene Scott pull his chair out in front of a group heading for the door. Mark Jacobs was hit by the chair.

“Sorry,” Eugene said.

Mark rubbed his shin. “It’s okay. It was an accident.”

But Henry wasn’t so sure. To him, it looked as if Eugene had done it on purpose.

Then Eugene hurried out of the dining room with a triumphant smirk on his face.